Sculpting liquid crystal skyrmions with external flows
Rodrigo C. V. Coelho, Hanqing Zhao, Mykola Tasinkevych, Ivan I. Smalyukh, M. M. Telo da Gama
Abstract
We investigate, using experiments and numerical simulations, the distortions and the alignment of skyrmions in liquid crystal under external flows for a range of average flow velocities. The simulations are based on the Landau-de Gennes $Q$ tensor theory both for isolated as well as for systems with many skyrmions. We found striking flow-driven elongation of an isolated skyrmion and flow alignment of skyrmions in the many-skyrmion system, both of which are also observed in the experiments. In the simulations, particular attention was given to the dissipation rate and to the various dissipation channels for a single skyrmion under external flow. This analysis provides insight on the observed scaling regime of the elongation of isolated flowing skyrmions and revealed a surprising plastic response at very short times, which may be relevant in applications based on the alignment of soft structures such as liquid crystal skyrmions.